BLACKBURN boss Mark Hughes was at a loss to explain his side's dismal second half showing at West Ham on Saturday.

Rovers appeared to be on course for an opening day victory after Andy Todd had fired them into a first half lead.

But then a resurgent West Ham staged a brilliant second half fight back and goals from Teddy Sheringham, Nigel Reo-Coker and Matthew Etheringham saw them run out worthy 3-1 victors.

"I don't think any of us saw that performance coming because our performance levels in the pre-season games were good," reflected Hughes.

"Today, though, we were nowhere near the kind of level we need to be if we want to be successful at this level.

"In the Premiership, you need eight, nine or 10 of your players playing well to get results and we didn't have anywhere near that many playing well here.

"I thought we did reasonably well in the first half and went in one goal to the good without really hitting the heights that we know we can.

"At that point, you're thinking a better performance in the second half will ensure we see the game out.

"We had chances to make it 2-0, which would probably have won us the game, but then in the second half we lost an early goal and the momentum changed.

"In fairness to West Ham, they put us under pressure and we didn't deal with it."

Hughes felt Rovers struggled in particular to cope with the dual threat posed by Sheringham and Marlon Harewood, who were a real handful up front for the Hammers.

"We were having a problem with Teddy Sheringham dropping off and getting too many balls down and we needed to address that," said Hughes, in reference to his decision to switch from a 4-4-2 to a 4-5-1 formation in the second half.

"He caused a problem all day long, to be perfectly honest, and we never really dealt with either him or Harewood.

"We tried to nip it in the bud before he hurt us but, unfortunately, before we could get a foothold in the game they got their second goal and it was very difficult from that point onwards."

The Rovers boss also felt the absence of Ryan Nelsen made a difference as his side struggled defensively without the injured Kiwi.

"We missed him a little bit but whether or not he would have made as much difference as there needed to be is open to question," said the Welshman.

"We struggled defensively but not only as a four, it was all over, really.

"We want to score more goals this year but, obviously, not to the detriment of a good, sound defensive base.

"We'll have to have a look at it (the formation) but we'll go with whatever suits us best.

"At the moment, we've got to look at things and review what has happened today and then make decisions based on the things we look at."

Meanwhile, Hughes defended Craig Bellamy after Rovers' new £4 million signing made a quiet debut.

"It was difficult for Craig because we didn't give him a great deal to work with today, certainly in the second half," added Hughes.

"In the first half, some of his movement was good but it's going to take time because he's still bedding in and he hasn't had much football in pre-season.

"He missed three or four games and has only done about 40 per cent of the training the rest of them have, so it will take him time.

"But there's no questioning his ability and the threat he will give us. It just wasn't there today for many reasons."